Directory_and_Chronicle_1908 — Page 1010

AMOY

891

Amoy ranks as a third-class city. It is considered, even for China, to be very dirty, and its inhabitants are unusually squalid in their habits. There are several places of interest to foreigners in the vicinity, and excursions can be made to Chang- chow-fu, the chief city of the department of that name, and situated about 35 miles from Amoy. The island of Kulangsu ["Drum Wave Island," from a hollow rock in which the in-coming tide causes a booming sound] is about a third of a mile from Amoy, and the residences of nearly all the foreigners are to be found there, although most of the foreign business is transacted on the Amoy side. It is a remarkably pretty island, and will become exceedingly popular with tourists and holiday-makers as its attractions become better known. The island of Kulangsu was handed over by China as an International settlement on the 1st May, 1903. In the opinion of the Commissioner of Customs, Kulangsu bids fair to become one of the most charn in; little republies on the coast of China. Hotel accommodation is satisfactory. There is a good Club in the settlement, adjoining which is the cricket ground. A neat little Anglican Church has also been erected. A Japanese Settlement was marked out in 1899. There is a granite dock at Amoy, 300 feet by 60 feet. It is owned and managed by foreigners. Kerosine oil tanks, capable of turning out 4,000 tons a day, the property of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, have been erected. The foreign residents number about 280.

"

Frequent and regular steamer communication is maintained with Hongkong, Swatow, Foochow and Formosa, and steamers occasionally run directly to the Straits Settlements and Manila. There has always been a comparatively good trade done at Amoy, and notwithstanding that the tea trade, for which it was long famous, has now practically disappeared, it is significant that the shipping tonnage employed by the port has quintupled since the decade 1864-73, and almost trebled since the decade 1874- 83. Yet the recent reports of the Commissioners of Customs have pointed out that if allowance is made for the fall of silver, in studying the average annual values of the import trade, we shall have to assume that imports, like exports, have been stationary for many years past. The explanation of the growth in shipping tonnage would there- fore appear to be exclusively indicative of the development of the coolie traffic to the Malay Archipelago, "humanity being now the staple export of Amoy The returns of the native passenger traffic for 1906 show that 91,727 left Amoy, most of them for the Straits, and 46,500 landed at Amoy, mostly from Hongkong and the Straits. With the exception of 1905, when only 76,000 left, this is the lowest total since 1899, and the Commissioner of Customs suggests that many years of emigration are beginning to tell, and that with lesser competition at home those who remain are able to get better wages than formerly, in the service, directly on indirectly, of their "returned emigrant” countrymen. In former times, ere the glory of Amoy had departed, the staple export was Tea--the local product as well as the superior blends brought over from Formosa- but, largely owing to the deterioration of the local product, and the indifference of the grower to the changing conditions of the foreign market, locally-grown tea has Jong since ceased to be exported, and the Customs Commissioner has made a fairly safe prophecy that it only requires the development of Keelung harbour to cause the total disappearance of the foreign tea merchant from Amoy. Before the Japanese obtained possession of Formosa the Formosan teas were settled and warehoused in Amoy, whence they were shipped to the foreign markets. Now no Formosan tea is "settled in Amoy, and with Keelung still unimproved to any considerable extent, quite 50 per cent. of the Formosan product is being shipped direct to America from Keelung. So that at no distant date the foreign Tea merchant at Amoy in all probability will have lost his occupation, and then in the words of the Commissioner "the row of quaint, rambling, old hongs on the Amoy side, and many picturesque residences on Kulangsu will be offering for the occupation of the wealthy returned emigrant or the missionary school." The total export of tea in 1906 was only 6,363_piculs. The net value of the trade of the port coming under the cognisance of the Foreign Customs in 1906 was 17,353,339, which compares with Tls. 18,567,794, in 1905; Tls. 17,204,571 in 1904, and Tls. 16,985,898.

"

Digitized by

Google

29*

Page 1010Page 1011